Review: The Bunker #1 – Is the Future Really Our Own Making?

by Jess Camacho

This week marks the print debut of Joshua Hale Fialkov’s newest series The Bunker, courtesy of Oni Press. This series has been available on Comixology previously but now will be an ongoing in print. The first issue comprises the first digital issues.

The Bunker #1 opens up with a group of college friends, Daniel Adamson, Natasha Losi, Heidi Ryder, Grady Potts and Billy Ryder, in the woods attempting to bury a time capsule. There’s mixed ideas about this, plus a nice reference to The Big Chill. Soon they discover a bunker that they decide to explore. Inside the bunker they discover something almost sinister. They find their names and letters written to each of them *minor spoiler* from their future selves. These letters range and as you read this you’ll immediately be intrigued by this premise. The double sized issue then goes into showing us glimpses of the future that lay for these young people and what each letter says.

Fialkov has grabbed me immediately with this series. I have always been a huge fan of science fiction and this comic is full of it. What The Bunker also has is great character drama and that is because Fialkov knows how to craft a good story. These young adults seem very different from the adults they will be later on. He’s made them so different in these two points on the timeline that not only will it be interesting to see where they go with what they know, but the change and personal growth each person has. Fialkov has set up a very intriguing story with a lot of room to grow this story into something incredibly memorable.

This series asks a question that I’ve seen asked before. What would you do if you knew what your future held? Do you change your path in life or do you make sure things go the way they have been foretold? Knowing what happens is going to make what happens in the past much more dramatic than what happens in the future. Good science fiction should make us look in ourselves and ask those tough questions. This particular genre allows us to explore anything but morality always comes back to the forefront in the end. With The Bunker, we know there is a particular path that all these kids need to get to but will they go along with it? With the brilliant ending we got in issue #1 it doesn’t look like they will have much of a choice.

The art by Joe Infurnari is not something I liked immediately. However as I continued to read I felt differently. His style works well for this kind of story. It’s grungy and gritty in a good way. Kudos to him as well for being able to not confuse me as the reader as to who each character is as the comic jumped from the past to the future. That’s going to be his toughest task in this series and so far he’s doing a very nice job.

The Bunker #1 is a must read for not only fans of Fialkov but for fans of good comics. This comic has plenty of action, drama, suspense but also adds in a nice touch of science fiction. Most importantly it makes the reader think a little more about themselves and what they would do in this situation. I’m excited for issue #2 and you would honestly be doing yourself a disservice by not picking this up.

Bottom Line

A great start to a hopefully long running series. Great mystery and science fiction.

Jess Camacho is the comic editor of Geeked Out Nation. She likes comics. A LOT. You can find her talking about comics all over the internet. Check out her reviews/features here at GON and her work at Multiversity Comics. Follow her on twitter @CamachoJess or email her at camachojess@geekedoutnation.com